Maria, a mother of three in Brooklyn Park, owes more than $400 this month between her Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy bills. She stayed home for months this winter as immigration agents swarmed the Twin Cities, and her husband worked much less than normal.
The family spent weeks barely leaving the house, constantly using energy. That’s reflected in recent bills.
“They went up a little more,” she told Sahan Journal.
Her electricity bill for March is $190; the gas bill is $220. They’ve been in their home for five years, and both bills are atypically high, according to Maria, who is being identified by her first name due to her immigration status. Immigrant households like hers that lost out on income living in the shadows during Operation Metro Surge are facing high utility bills at a time when cash is tight and fear lingers.
The mass deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota between December and early March forced thousands of Minnesota households to make difficult risk assessments. Many lost jobs or were too afraid to leave their homes to work. They relied on neighbors and strangers to bring them food, and struggled to pay the rent.
Community organizations noted another major need for families calling support hotlines: high gas and electricity bills. The ICE surge came during the winter months, when heating costs cause utility bills to soar for Minnesotans.
Utilities are typically the third largest monthly expense after housing and grocery payments, according to Annie Levenson-Falk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, an energy justice nonprofit.
“If you don’t have your normal income coming in, it’s tough,” said Levenson-Falk.
Maria grew up in Morelos, Mexico, and has lived in Minnesota for 27 years. She has three children, all of whom are U.S. citizens. The two youngest, a 4-year-old girl and a son who turns 7 this month, live at home. Her son has leukemia, and his frequent medical appointments and expensive treatments strain the family.
Maria’s husband worked in manufacturing for years, but recently turned to couriering Door Dash orders to make ends meet. The job gives him needed flexibility to take his son to medical appointments. But with ICE roaming the streets this winter, he worked much less.
Like many immigrant households, Maria’s family relied on assistance from community networks and strangers during the ICE surge. Volunteers delivered groceries once a week. They are in a support group with other Spanish-speaking families in the Twin Cities battling childhood cancer. The group helped them cover mortgage payments and energy bills during the surge.
Pati Santos, a medical interpreter at Children’s Minnesota hospital, helped form the support group for Spanish-speaking families caring for children with pediatric cancer. When Operation Metro Surge began, she helped families take care of basic needs through a rapidly formed network of volunteers and sponsors.
Minnesotans went all in on providing groceries and rides for their immigrant neighbors, Santos said. And crowdfunded campaigns helped cover mortgage and rent payments. But in March, she started to hear from families needing help with big power bills that had been triaged during the surge.
“They were using up heat and all that electricity more than they normally would have when they were out of their homes,” Santos said.
Seeking relief
Many households put off large power bills in the winter due to Minnesota’s cold weather rule, which limits utility companies’ ability to cut service during the winter months. But most people don’t understand the rule completely, Levenson-Falk said. Customers must set up a payment plan with their utility provider ahead of time to avoid having power shut off.
But calling to set up that payment plan can be intimidating, and people may not know how to advocate for themselves, Levenson-Falk said. Companies will try to get customers to commit to the largest possible payments, and many aren’t prepared to negotiate.
“People are not real eager to call a big corporation and say, ‘I’m sheltering in place because of ICE,’” Levenson-Falk said.
This winter, the Citizens Utility Board started getting calls from groups that work with immigrants who said many were struggling with their energy bills. They banded together with the Energy CENTS Coalition, a fellow nonprofit, to raise money to help immigrant households. The groups raised more than $38,000 from small donations, and gathered more than $70,000 total that went to helping roughly 200 households.
Madi Johnson, an environmental justice organizer with the Latino advocacy group Unidos MN, was part of a campaign asking the state for a moratorium on power shutoffs in response to Operation Metro Surge.
Misunderstandings about the cold weather rule are pervasive, Johnson said, which can lead to a false sense of security.
“People think they’re protected already, and people don’t understand that they might get kicked off, so rent is what they worry about,” Johnson said.
Xcel Energy, the primary electricity provider in the Twin Cities, told Sahan Journal the company went beyond the typical cold weather rule and suspended disconnections through the month of February. Disconnections for Xcel Customers were 87% lower this February compared to February 2025. The company said they provided extra training for call center staff to facilitate more flexible payment plans for customers during the surge.
Xcel also worked with the Citizens Utility Board and the Energy CENTS Coalition to facilitate payments using money the groups fundraised for immigrant households, applying credits from $250 to $500 to accounts, according to a spokesperson.
Xcel said they worked to spread word about the shutoff moratorium through community groups. Unidos didn’t learn about the February moratorium until Feb. 20, Johnson said.
CenterPoint Energy said in a statement that the company is committed to helping customers manage their bills year round, and will work with customers in multiple languages to direct them toward payment assistance plans
Difficulty accessing energy assistance
The primary source of financial relief for people facing high utility bills is the federal energy assistance program. But the program requires at least one household member to be a U.S. citizen.
Michael Schmitz, director of energy assistance programs for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, told the state’s Public Utilities Commission in March that it’s hard to measure the impact of Operation Metro Surge on energy assistance applications.
“It’s a little tricky how we are supposed to serve households who are undocumented,” Schmitz said. “I do think it’s possible that people who do have that mixed status did not want to send in information about their household to a federally funded program.”
The federal energy assistance program is administered by states, often through local Community Action Partnership agencies. Some of those agencies told the commerce department that immigrant families were trying to withdraw applications amidst the ICE surge, Schmitz said. Local agencies work to find ways to get families qualified, but with all the employment records and biographical information required for the applications, immigrants can be wary, especially now.
Maria’s family looked at applying for energy assistance, but when her husband went to talk with Hennepin County Community Action Partnership, her family was alarmed by the quantity of information requested.
“They asked for a lot of information — too much,” Maria said.
Where to call for help with power bills:
- Minnesota Public Utilities Commission Consumer Affairs Office: 1-800-657-3782
- CenterPoint Energy: 800-245-2377
- Xcel Energy: 800-895-4999
- Citizens Utility Board (nonprofit that helps people with questions about their energy bills): 651-300-4701
